IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/eeupol/v11y2010i2p241-265.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cross-border mobility and European identity: The effectiveness of intergroup contact during the ERASMUS year abroad

Author

Listed:
  • Emmanuel Sigalas

    (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria, emmanuel.sigalas@oeaw.ac.at)

Abstract

Cross-border people mobility has long been seen as a promising method to promote European integration. In this article, I test the premise that the ERASMUS student experience abroad and direct interpersonal contact promote a European identity. The results draw from a two-wave longitudinal survey on two samples of ERASMUS students who studied in continental Europe and England, respectively. Although studying abroad led to increased socializing with other Europeans, contact with host country students remained limited. The paired sample t-tests reveal that ERASMUS does not strengthen students’ European identity; on the contrary, it can have an adverse effect on it. Nevertheless, the regression analyses show that increased socializing with Europeans has a positive, though modest, impact on European identity.

Suggested Citation

  • Emmanuel Sigalas, 2010. "Cross-border mobility and European identity: The effectiveness of intergroup contact during the ERASMUS year abroad," European Union Politics, , vol. 11(2), pages 241-265, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:11:y:2010:i:2:p:241-265
    DOI: 10.1177/1465116510363656
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1465116510363656
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1465116510363656?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Amitai Etzioni, 2007. "The Community Deficit," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 23-42, March.
    2. Amitai Etzioni, 2007. "The Community Deficit," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45, pages 23-42, March.
    3. Daniela Obradovic, 1996. "Policy Legitimacy and the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 191-221, June.
    4. Christoph Meyer, 1999. "Political Legitimacy and the Invisibility of Politics: Exploring the European Union’s Communication Deficit," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(4), pages 617-639, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Aleberto Alesina & Guido Tabellini & Francesco Trebbi, 2017. "Is Europe an Optimal Political Area?," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 48(1 (Spring), pages 169-234.
    2. Gerhard Reese & Oliver Lauenstein, 2014. "The Eurozone Crisis: Psychological Mechanisms Undermining and Supporting European Solidarity," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-12, March.
    3. Finn, Mairead & Darmody, Merike, 2015. "Predicting International Higher Education Students’ Satisfaction with their Study in Ireland," Papers WP520, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    4. Chankseliani, Maia, 2018. "The politics of student mobility: Links between outbound student flows and the democratic development of post-Soviet Eurasia," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 281-288.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Emmanuel Sigalas, 2009. "Does ERASMUS Student Mobility promote a EuropeanIdentity?," The Constitutionalism Web-Papers p0036, University of Hamburg, Faculty for Economics and Social Sciences, Department of Social Sciences, Institute of Political Science.
    2. Odelia Oshri & Tamir Sheafer & Shaul R Shenhav, 2016. "A community of values: Democratic identity formation in the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 17(1), pages 114-137, March.
    3. Ulrich Krotz, 2009. "Momentum and Impediments: Why Europe Won't Emerge as a Full Political Actor on the World Stage Soon," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47, pages 555-578, June.
    4. Magnette, Paul & Papadopoulos, Yannis, 2008. "On the politicization of the European consociation: A middle way between Hix and Bartolini," European Governance Papers (EUROGOV) 1, CONNEX and EUROGOV networks.
    5. Ulrich Krotz, 2009. "Momentum and Impediments: Why Europe Won't Emerge as a Full Political Actor on the World Stage Soon," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3), pages 555-578, June.
    6. Christoffer Kølvraa, 2016. "European Fantasies: On the EU's Political Myths and the Affective Potential of Utopian Imaginaries for European Identity," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 169-184, January.
    7. Élodie Béthoux & Roland Erne & Darragh Golden, 2018. "A Primordial Attachment to the Nation? French and Irish Workers and Trade Unions in Past EU Referendum Debates," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 56(3), pages 656-678, September.
    8. Özdemir, Sina & Rauh, Christian, 2022. "A Bird’s Eye View: Supranational EU Actors on Twitter," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 10(1), pages 133-145.
    9. Andrea Fracasso & Nicola Grassano & Giuseppe Vittucci Marzetti, 2015. "The Gravity of Foreign News Coverage in the EU: Does the Euro Matter?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 274-291, March.
    10. Brüggemann, Michael & Sifft, Stefanie & Kleinen von Königslöw, Katharina & Peters, Bernhard & Wimmel, Andreas, 2006. "Segmented Europeanization: the transnationalization of public spheres in Europe ; trends and patterns / Michael Brüggemann; Stefanie Sifft; Katharina Kleinen," TranState Working Papers 37, University of Bremen, Collaborative Research Center 597: Transformations of the State.
    11. Nicholas Clark & Timothy Hellwig, 2012. "Information effects and mass support for EU policy control," European Union Politics, , vol. 13(4), pages 535-557, December.
    12. Vincent Della Sala, 2010. "Political Myth, Mythology and the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48, pages 1-19, January.
    13. Mogaji, Peter Kehinde, 2015. "Review of Architectural Flaws of the EMU: What Eurozone Crisis Lessons for the Proposed ‘Afrozone’?," MPRA Paper 99334, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Beate Kohler-Koch, 1997. "The European Union Facing Enlargement: Still a System sui generis?," MZES Working Papers 20, MZES.
    15. Vincent Della Sala, 2010. "Political Myth, Mythology and the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 1-19, January.
    16. Sina Özdemir & Christian Rauh, 2022. "A Bird’s Eye View: Supranational EU Actors on Twitter," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 10(1), pages 133-145.
    17. Jens Steffek, 2008. "Public Accountability and the Public Sphere of International Governance," RECON Online Working Papers Series 3, RECON.
    18. Jochen Peter & Holli A. Semetko & Claes H. de Vreese, 2003. "EU Politics on Television News," European Union Politics, , vol. 4(3), pages 305-327, September.
    19. Claes H. de Vreese & Susan A. Banducci & Holli A. Semetko & Hajo G. Boomgaarden, 2006. "The News Coverage of the 2004 European Parliamentary Election Campaign in 25 Countries," European Union Politics, , vol. 7(4), pages 477-504, December.
    20. Colombatto Enrico, 1998. "The Birth and Failure of the EMU Project," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 8(2-3), pages 1-20, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:11:y:2010:i:2:p:241-265. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.